A Samhain ritual for pets who have passed
How to send your pets a love note across the rainbow bridge
In this post, I’m sharing a Samhain ceremony you can try that will help you intuitively reconnect with your in-spirit animal friends and honor the living animals in your life.
Dear Inuitive One,
Offering animal communication as long as I have, I’ve reached a point in my career where it’s becoming a common occurrence that I am talking with pets at the end of their life and helping them share their last wishes, who I first communicated with when they were just tiny pups and kittens starting their new life with their family.
Between these first and last conversations, I’ve been lucky enough to help give these pets a chance to talk with their people about things like:
What they need to feel safe when the whole family was moving house,
Sharing their requests about their food, activity, and exercise preferences,
What they need to adjust to new pets joining the family,
Navigating health issues and having the chance to be a part of their care and treatment decisions,
And understanding that the kids are safe - even though they aren’t home anymore, now that they are off at university.
I’ve also had the honor of helping so many of these lifelong pet clients after they have crossed, touch base with their beloved humans, share how they are, and have a chance to say goodbye.
My Pet loss altar in the healing studio
Photo: Two beeswax candles burning brightly on my altar to honor a few beloved animal friends and familiars I’ve worked with who recently made the big transition from this world to the next.
I’ve adopted a candle lighting ritual I do when a longtime animal client is about to, or has, passed. It’s a powerful ritual to mark the sacredness of these animals’ lives and the impact they have had on me and the world.
And this month, I’ve lit more candles than I can count. A few evenings, there have been two or three candles for two long-time animal clients burning at once on my altar. Animals who have both touched my heart greatly in our conversations and connections.
With so many candles burning bright on my altar this month, I’ve been in deep reflection on the need for sacred space to grieve and to honor our animal friends, as too often pet loss grief is unsupported or worse yet, unrecognized as the profound loss that it is.
Whether an animal friend you have loved has recently crossed, or your heart still tightens a little when you think about a beloved animal who passed away years ago, I invite you to take some cues from the Pagan holiday of Samhain and honor the animals who have blessed your life.
A Samhain blessing ritual for animals who have passed
I’d love to share a simple blessing ceremony to honor the animals who have touched your heart, who are now in spirit form. This is a ritual you can come back to every Samhain, or whenever you feel you would like to touch base with your animal friend.
Place a hand on your heart and a hand on your belly to help mark this moment as a sacred time for tuning in.
Feel your breath, and be in the here and now.
Feel your feet on the earth and the support under your body.
Let your breath fill your lungs naturally, let the movement of your breath draw you closer to your heart.
Envision each inhalation moving through your lungs and heart like a graceful wind, softly opening the energy chambers, cavities, and doors within your heart that have closed tightly as a result of the grief and loss you have experienced.
Envision your inhales drawing in fresh, clean and clear air in.
Let your exhales free the energy that has been trapped within your heart, let go it’s hold and release in a soft and supported way. Be gentle with yourself. There’s no need to push energy out. Simply let yourself free it, to transform it.
When you are ready, think of your animal beloved,
And as you breathe in, let your inhale fill your lungs with the gratitude you feel for your animal friend.
As you exhale, let your breath carry this deep gratitude out of your lungs to fill your whole being, body and spirit.
There’s no need to send this energy to your animal friend. Simply let it fill you so you can emanate it out like a lighthouse in the dark.
Follow this pattern for a spell: Breathing in to nourish your gratitude, exhaling, extending your gratitude throughout your body and Soul.
As you do, use your inner voice, thank your animal friend for their love.
Perhaps tell them about something that they taught you in your time together, and the ways they helped you grow and become who you are today.
There is no need to send these words to them. Just let the energy of your words emanate throughout your whole being, knowing your words will be received by your animal friend.
When you feel ready, let the image of your animal friend start to fade, knowing your shared intuitive connection with them is forever. Your love is forever.
Sense back into the now and feel your hands over your heart and belly. And use your voice, say a simple blessing for the animals in your life that are alive and well, be it your current pets, that cool dog you just met at the park, or the wildlife that surrounds your home. Thanking these living animals for sharing the earth with you here, in the profoundly rich and immense land of the living.
There are more meditations that I would love to share with you…
I invite you to check out my Guided Meditation Hub. It has meditations to help calm your nerves, listen with your heart, and tune in with your animal beloveds, including a Sleep Meditation for Pet Loss
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